Full details: Jump of a boat near the Statue of Liberty and swim to the World Trace Center (or thereabouts). On June 29th, Adele, Jeremy and I did the Sharkfest swim. That was the Statue of Liberty to Liberty Park, New Jersey for a 1.5 Mile distance. This time, instead of making a left into NJ, we make a right and cross the Hudson River toward the NY side for a distance of 2.2 Miles.
Two weeks out, they emailed us that details will hit us a week prior. Wonderful. The waiting game. Finally got these instructions and were told that we must attend a conf call on Wednesday at 7pm. Wednesday rolls around and I realize that I still don't have a phone number to dial into. Start emailing them and calling them. Nothing. At 5:50 an email comes with the webx meeting stuff and a backup regular old phone number too. That's good because I never tried a webx conf call and didn't have time to screw around with it. Mixed feeling so far. The pdf document they put together showed they (or perhaps the Coast Guard and NYPD Harbor Patrol) were very concerned about safety which is cool but on the other hand a lot of conditions and restrictions set on. Also, they clearly spelled out that this is an "experimental swim and not a race" but "that there is also an award ceremony". They are also encouraging swimmers who swim a 32 minute mile to wear a wetsuit and I kinda don't want to.
So, I'm conflicted. Also, I thought I had a real bad swim during the Open Water Swim Festival in Connecticut but after some data munging I realized that wasn't the case. So again, wetsuit or not? Very conflicted.
OK - So here we go. The night before I was still conflicted but mostly decided on sans wetsuit. I don't need one so why should I use one? The distance is tiny comparativly to other swims, I have been in the Hudson before and the temperatures are gonna be just right.
Wasn't sure what to do about transportation. Check-in was supposed to start at 7am and the LIRR wasn't going to be helpful. Either I take the 4:46 and arrive at 5:25 or I take the 6:31 and arrive at 7:09. Neither option was very attractive. Get there reallllllly way to early or get there a little late and if something goes wrong, then I'm screwed. Adele graciously offered to take me to the subway but she had her own race to get too in Brooklyn and I didn't want to screw her up. Spoke to Hammad and he was cool about dropping me off at either the subway or Jamaica station. He had a Doctor appointment in the morning anyway so that's cool. He picked me up at 5:30. I had a 5:40ish option or a 6:15 option. Cool.
He got to my house at 5:30 and we departed. Soon after I realized I forgot 2 things. I was gonna take Tylenol for the crazy headache I had and I also left a bag of pretzels. During the Open Water Swim Festival I was starving before the start so I decided to take a bag of pretzels with peanut butter in them. Got it all ready and left it at home. He offered to go back but I didn't want to send confusing messages to the dog who was convinced that I am taking him for a walk so I opted to figure something out on the way.
Jamaica station was emptyish and I bought a bag of pretzels and tylenol. By the way, I was so glad for my long sleeve shirt and sweater as it was in the high 50's and cold. Got to Penn station and went to my workplace for clean indoor plumbing. As I was leaveing Penn Station, I saw a girl run down the stairs with a ROC shirt. ROC is the race that Adele and crew were going to. Kinda funny.
Anyway, I left work and took a cab to check-in. As I was crossing the street, I noticed a girl with a NYCSWIM bag and I started talking to her. I was wondering if she was doing my swim or the NYCSWIM MIMS relay. My swim - cool. Her name was Elke and she was in the last pod going in or in plain english Fast! She was one of the 2 people who were allowed to do this swim last year.
Quick flashback - I forgot to mention the conference call. I understand the point of it, I truly do. They need to make this swim work and work safely and the (paper) logistics were so complicated, that they needed people to understand what's going on. That being said, there are truly stupid people in this world.
There was the person who had her kids and/or a dog make so much noise that we could not hear or understand anything. Constantly, people asked for this person to mute her phone. I don't know if she hung up or finally realized that we were talking to her and muted the phone but she finally took action and we could hear again. Then there was the guy who with everyone listening decided to ask about parking. Good question I thought. He then proceeded to explain to everyone that he is coming from upstate, planning on taking these highways and bridges and get there at 7:15. Deanna said OK but then he decided to maybe travel by train and started explaining that one. Thank God, Deanna (finally!) put a stop to that. Other people kept asking things that were covered in the meeting and by previous questions. Deanna would explain "X", someone would ask about "X", Deanna would explain "X" again and then another person who clearly wasn't listening would ask the same question about "X" again and on and on. I asked if jammers would be counted as a wetsuit since nycswim does that and apparently Deanna doesn't know what a jammer is and said we will have to see what it looks like. After that I hung up and went to swim. The conference call was a waste of time for someone with any brains. Not trying to seem arrogant but I call it like it is.
Back to race day...So UrbanSwim check-in was right next to NYCSWIM instead of where they said they would be so Elke and I ended up walking around for no reason. Cool. Still, we found the right place and checked-in. I also saw a favorite person from NYCSWIM and said hello.
Anyway, the way things work is you check-in with your Pod captain. After that, you stay with him the rest of the time. You get in to a boat with your pod. He lets you into the water and lets you know when to start. He is responsible for you along with your kayakers. I checked-in and met my fellow poders. Besides me, there were 2 Erics, Vladimir, another guy and 2 women. One of the women, the older of the 2, was talking to someone and said something about swimming with Gators. I thought maybe it was a masters swim thing or something but then I saw the shirt she wore. It said "Aquatica" and "I swam with the food chain". I know that shirt... Lucky's Swim. She was surprised that someone outside Florida knew about that. I get around ;) Anyway, the gator reference was to a swim she did in Florida. Someone said they saw a Gator. She saw something and well the finish line was in sight so she hightailed it out there and didn't look back. I believe it regarding the gators. Nice.
In any case, got ready to swim. Since the boat wasn't coming to the finish, we were asked not to bring anything on the boat. The temperature was in the 60's, chilly, it was going to be even colder on the boat on the water and anyone without a wetsuit would be almost naked. To their credit, they handed emergency plastic sheets sort of like after marathons. I took a few since they were folded nicely into a little thing. I did bring a black garbage from home and wore that. We met Captain Tom and boarded "Miss Kattie". I was kinda jealous of boat #3, since they were on a zodiac and I thought that would be pretty cool, but one of the Eric's pointe out to me that they aren't going to have any protection from the weater while we do. Yup - makes sense.
We finally finally finally left the dock and started toward race site. It was cloudy and overcast and I was wishing for the sun as I started shivering. I went down into the galley for warmth at one point and I looked at the news on the tv. Temperature outside was 62 tho I gotta believe that here on the water it was colder. The water temperature, per Captain Tom and his instruments, was 72.3. Awesome.
Got to race site and waited. And waited and waited. Lot of waiting that day. We were looking for our kayakers to meet up with us. We saw far away a group, black little dots actually, but we weren't sure if they were there to support nycswim or us. Eventually, they joined us. Since each pod was expecting 5 kayakers, the 20+ kayakers were searching for their pod. We also met the kayaker for the fastest person, she would go with the winner, and the kayaker for the youngest swimmer. I mistakenly thought she said slowest but she corrected me. Had some issues whether the kayakers had their radios on or not and whether they were our kayakers or not and we, including the Captain, just shook our head.
At one point I got a little nauseous and just wanted to get in already. Actually, we all just wanted to get in already. Eventually, the kayak situation got straighened out, the cops (Coast Guard, NYPD Harbor, NYPD Scuba etc) were set up and pod 1 got into the water. We heard the horn and they were off.
I would have thought that they would have us move to the location where pod 1 started from but we didn't. I mean we were all in the same area-ish but not exactly the same start. Hard to compare things. I guess it's like comparing green apples and red apples. They are both apples but they are not exactly the same.
Still, they finally told us to get in. I, of course, was the first one in. No - I didn't do a cannonball or had my hand on my goggles or the family jewels or anything. Just like sharkfest, head first dive and they actually got that on film. Yay... Water felt good. I made friends with the kayakers and held onto one. Without warning, we hear a horn. No one was ready but no matter, we were off. I was in the front initially, like usual, cause I'm stupid like that but soon settled in. I was constantly with Eric Witzke and Rich Bernstein it seemed. We leap frogged each other basically.
We were glad to have the kayakers with us but soon they seem to have disappeared. They were just not there. We felt all alone. I know this because at times, we were battered by huge waves from the ferries and other big boats and had to stop or switch to breast stroke and then we looked around and they were just MIA. At other times they were there to yell at us to stick to the left and not cross the river. It was nuts. Seemed not organized at all. Either they weren't there or they were there to yell at us. They were suppossed to guide us. They were supposed to make sure we were safe and going at a straight line and not doing bonus miles.
We were getting tossed around by the waves. It wasn't as bad as Maggie but still, there were times where the ground just disappeared from underneath us and we just fell down. I drank that day.
One (scary) thing that happened almost right away was my roadID slipping of my wrist and into the water. I tried to catch it but it was gone. I look at it as something that won't ever help me but rather it's so they know who to return the body to. I now felt naked. The chip on the ankle also felt loose and I was considering taking it off and putting it in my jammers but decided against it. That's a whole of potential chafing I did not want.
Anyway, as we were getting battered, it became obvious that the smart (from my limited vantage point) was to cross the river already. Once we cross, we would not get hammered. I decided to do it and I told my buddies that "screw this. I'm crossing and the kayakers will have to deal with it". I started crossing. They materialized out of nowhere and started yelling. I didn't care. Eric and Rich and I were beyond caring about that. I went and they followed. At one point, They yelled not to cross and that I should follow Miss Kattie. This was stupid as she was crossing but as I said, I didn't care.
I was crossing and I noticed a big ferry coming up. Could have been ugly. I wasn't going to back down. Thankfully, the NYPD Harbor boat decided on giving me right of way and they raced down and stopped the ferry. Awesome. One less problem. One difference between the Brooklyn Bridge Crossing and here is that I think during that swim they just stop traffic completly so it's just the current that is a factor. Here, they eventually closed the crossing but until that area, you were pommeled with waves/chop etc from the boats.
In the briefing and in their packet, they mentioned that there will be a tidal assist toward the end and that we should try to aim for the South side of the cove. If we aim for the North side of the cove, we will be swept and miss the entrance completly and therefore miss the finish. I didn't really feel the tidal assist where I was but I was cognizant of what could happen. So instead of crossing diagonally, I tried to cross perpendicular to the other side. It was slow moving. I kinda felt like I wasn't getting anywhere across but slowly but surely. Rich was trading spaces with me again. Eric W. was behind me.
At one point, I got real nauseous. I started debating on not whether I will throw up but rather when I will throw up. I didn't. Cool.
The cove was approaching and my approach was good when I finally felt the tidal assit. I almost missed the entrance. Kayakers were there (where did they come from) and they were yelling to me to push in. Hard sprint push and I was in. Swam to the ladder and got out to the timing mat. My chip didn't go off but the timer manually did it.
I was so happy to be out of there and to clear my goggles. I had so much garbage water in my eyes. Went and took a freezing (why is it always freezing?!?) shower/rinse and then back to the swim finish. I got an empty bottle of water and I asked someone there to fill it with Hudson water for me. They looked at me like I was nuts but I explained. Jessie just had a test in science about microscopes and mono-cellular organisms and multi-cellular organisms and cell makeup etc and I asked her to ask her teacher if he wants a sample. He said Yes and so I got them a sample. Just got to make sure I don't drink it!
I went to my bag to both get dressed and because food was there. I had a delicious bagel/roll thing and some water. I quickly texted my family that I was alive and ok and if someone calls about finding my roadID that I was OK and nothing happened. I was hungry. Still, very hungry. I didn't want another bagel. Way too much calories tho I had to balance out feeding due to the race (aquarun) the next day. They also had donuts there and I finally decided to have one. I haven't had a donut since 2000 so it took a while to convince myself. I got up and stared and stared and I could not get my hand to take the damn thing. I stood there for 10 minutes just staring at it. Almost 15 years of no donuts. I finally took it and in 2 bites finished it. It was awesome. I then had another bagel. Yes - I was that hungry.
They didn't give medals here. Instead they gave a shirt and a mug with your time printed on it. I got mine and then hopped a cab to penn station. Unfortunatly, I didn't realize at the time that the time they wrote was wrong. It had an extra 5 minutes added to it as I was in the 2nd wave. I later emailed them. I emailed Deanna and 2 days later to Wendy. Wendy at least replied that she put in an inquiry. I haven't heard back from them at all but I can see the results are fixed. They could have emailed back...
When I got to Penn station, I got real cold so I got a hot chocolate (SHEESH!!!) and it was awesome.
Got home and all I wanted was a shower and some rest but Elizabeth wanted to go shopping at Trader Joes (not one of my favorite stores) so I did what I had to do and lovingly went. Eventually home to shower but no rest. That's ok. I'm tough.
Regarding Eric Applegate who I spoke to a lot on the boat. He was a good boy and listened to the kayakers about when to cross the river. BIG mistake. He crossed when they told him to and he missed the entrance due to the current. He hung on to the kayak and they tried to pull him in but to no avail. The Coast Guard was right there and he asked for a lift. They pulled him in and delivered him safely. Later, they came and got his name and number for their records. Funny thing is, the results don't mention this. They do mention this for other swimmers. Whatever...
Next day's adventures are the aquarun and you can read it here if you really want to.